In Moscow, the founder of a hostel was sentenced to a colony because of the death of people in a fire

Nagatinsky district court sentenced 57-year-old Rauf Mironov, founder of the hostel in the south of Moscow, where eight people died in a fire in the summer of 2022, to five years' imprisonment with serving his sentence in a penal colony of general regime. This was reported by the Moscow Prosecutor's Office on its website on December 10.

The man was found guilty under part 3 of article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Provision of services that do not meet the safety requirements of life and health of consumers, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy, causing the death of two or more persons by negligence").

According to the investigation, the founder of Mosmed LLC, Mironov, and his daughter, who is the general director of the company, owned a hostel, which was located on the first floor of one of the apartment buildings on Alma-Atinskaya Street. The entrepreneurs knew about the non-compliance of fire protection systems and premises of the hostel with the requirements of the legislation, but continued to provide services that did not meet the requirements of safety of life and health.

"The admitted violations of fire safety requirements led to the impossibility of timely and complete evacuation of persons living in the hostel, which led to panic and difficulty in leaving the premises <...> and caused the death of eight guests, infliction of physical and moral harm to another 42 persons," reads the report published by the prosecutor's office.

Mironov partially admitted his guilt. The accused was taken into custody in the courtroom.

On the night of July 29, 2022, a fire broke out in a hostel in the south of Moscow. The cause of death of eight people was carbon monoxide poisoning.

The fire broke out on the first floor of the building due to a short circuit of an electrical appliance. The message about the fire was received by the Ministry of Emergency Situations on July 28, 2022 at 23:58. The area of the fire amounted to about 150 square meters. meters. At 00:47 the flame was liquidated. Later, a criminal case was initiated.

The Ministry of Emergency Situations said that the fire alarm system in the hostel was installed, but did not work. The last inspection of the hostel for compliance with fire safety requirements was conducted in June 2022. Seven violations were identified, including in relation to the evacuation exit. Before that, fire department specialists also identified violations back in 2019.

One of the eyewitnesses of the incident told Izvestia how people were blocked by a window grille when the fire broke out in the hostel. According to him, eyewitnesses had to break it out to free people.